Heroine For A Hobby
by RumbleintheDumbles
Summary: Some said there were places out there where you couldn't possibly have too much power. Some said Earth Bet was one of these places. Some were wrong. They were very, very wrong.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: With the Anime finally here, I've decided there aren't enough fics out there for One Punch Man. So I decided to try one. It should be obvious that I've changed a couple of things about Worm Canon. Not sure how long this will be, I'm pretty much just winging it, but for OPM, that's the best way to go, right?**

 **Disclaimer: One Punch Man belongs to ONE. Worm belongs to Wildbow. The only thing that belongs to me is my muse.**

* * *

"I'm not going to lie," Tattletale grimaced, "This looks bad for us."

Regent snorted. "I see your power is really pulling it's weight, there. That's obvious to any of us."

And it was. It really, really was.

The Undersiders had, up to this point, been a low-risk, low-reward gang, taking on relatively 'safe' jobs and staying under the radar.

Until their mysterious 'boss' called Tattletale with an offer: a huge cash reward if you rob a casino. Normally, they would have been extremely enthusiastic about doing so. However, there was a caveat: This casino belonged to one of the two largest and most powerful criminal gangs in the city of Brockton Bay: the Azn Bad Boyz, or ABB for short, and by extension, it also belonged to their boss, Lung, widely recognised as the single most powerful Parahuman in the city.

Unfortunately, they didn't manage to get away cleanly in their 'little heist', and Lung caught wind of it. Said gang leader was now gunning for them.

"Tattletale," Grue, the black-clad leader of the team said urgently, "We need a plan. That's usually your forte."

The blonde-haired girl thought furiously. "If we try to run, he'll smoke us out," she mused, "Leaving the city obviously isn't an option..." she looked up at Grue, "I think our best chance may be to do something he doesn't expect."

"Like what?" Regent asked.

"...Hitting him head-on," Grue realised, "If we go after him, we might catch him off-guard."

"It's not much, but it's better than nothing," Tattletale said grimly.

The final member of the team merely nodded in approval. Bitch was always one for the direct course of action.

"...Seriously? You want us to go and poke the giant rage dragon and see if we hit his weak spot," Regent said weakly, "Am I the only one who thinks this is a spectacularly _bad_ idea?"

"No," Tattletale replied in annoyance, "You aren't. But it's _less_ spectacularly bad than any of the alternatives. Now stop bitching and let's go… if we can hit him hard enough before he ramps up, we can get out of this alive."

"Fine, fine..." Regent sighed, "But when we all die, I'm going to say 'I told you so'."

"If we all die," Grue said evenly, "I'll be dead, so I won't care."

* * *

Lung observed his underlings with mild approval. They looked ready to kill, at least – and that's what he wanted, after those little insects decided to reach out of the dirt and take things that belonged to their betters.

Up to now, the Undersiders had never received any of his attention, because, sensibly, he didn't believe they were foolish enough to try any kind of large-scale action against him. How wrong he was – apparently they really were that foolish.

It was time to demonstrate that they were in a very, very big pond and they were very, very small fish. They would be an example for all others to fear.

"Alright," he growled and his men instantly snapped to attention, "We're going to find those kids, and we're going to kill them. You see one, you shoot them dead! If they're lying on the ground, you put a bullet in their skull for good measure! They're tricky little bitches, I'm not about to give one of them the chance to get away. Do you understand?"

His men gave various nods and signs of understanding.

"Good. Move out and-"

His order went unfinished as a large, heavy impact shook the ground in the alley, kicking up a huge amount of dust and shattering the ground. Many of his men lost their footing with startled yelps, as Lung held an arm up in irritation to try and keep the dust from getting in his eyes. "What the fuck?"

"In this age of falling populations worldwide, I can't let you kill children," a female voice declared, and Lung narrowed his eyes as the dust began to clear.

Standing in the middle of a small crater was a rather unusual black-haired young woman, dressed in cargo pants and a tank-top. While her face was clearly skin-toned and her body was clearly that of a slim human female, several of her body parts, including her arms and neck, looked completely cybernetic. A tinker, maybe?

"I don't know who the hell you are," Lung grunted, "But you have one chance to leave before you die."

In response, she raised her arms to a fighting position. Her cybernetic eyes, black with yellow irises, locked onto him. "Acquiring target."

Lung rolled his eyes. "Kill her."

His men began to open fire on the strange cyborg, filling the area she had been standing in with bullets – _had_ being the key word. She had already began moving, moving forward in a blur to hit one of his men in the gut, doubling him over in pain – she swiftly began moving amongst his men, darting around gunfire and lashing out with pinpoint strikes to disable them all. He noted that none of his men were dead. He also noted that she took all two dozen or so of them out in less than a minute.

He eyed his new opponent a bit more seriously now. "All right… who the hell are you supposed to be?"

She held out a palm towards him. "My name is Dragon. I am a hero," her palm lit up, "And my target is acquired."

A blast of fire shot out from her palm, colliding directly with him with significant force, knocking him to the ground. Feeling his power kicking in to regenerate the damage, he got to his feet with a dark chuckle. "Dragon? You call yourself a dragon? While you fi **ght** **ME** **!?** "

He felt the metallic scales begin to form across his chest. **"I will teach you what a dragon really is, little girl."**

* * *

Dragon frowned as she observed the change in her opponent. He had pronounced scales across his torso, centred around where her shot had connected, and "I see. You are the criminal 'Lung'. Your ability allows you to regenerate damage, growing steadily stronger and more powerful as the fight wears on," she crouched down into a sprinter's ready stance, "Then I need to finish this quickly."

Two explosive blasts left her feet as she kicked off toward Lung, leaving two large craters in the ground – she rocketed toward the slowly-growing man and let loose with a powerful punch, hitting him straight in the cheek and lifting him off his feet. Not wasting any time letting him recover, she continued forward with a cry of exertion, her knee catching him directly to the chest and sending him flying backward. With a roar, a large burst of flame shot from Lung's mouth, forcing her to break off her attack and propel herself to the side with another blast. Rolling to one knee, her hand rose again to point at Lung, who collided with the opposite building with a huge crash.

Holding her right arm with her left to keep her aim steady, it seemed to light up with light-blue energy, before a blast of light-blue energy shot at the impact sight. The results were apparent instantly – a relatively large block of solid ice had frozen over the large hole in the base of the building.

She paused, wondering if the cryo-shot had done the trick.

It hadn't.

" **I… 'ill… ooo!"** The parahuman crime-boss gave a bestial growl as he smashed his way out of the ice and glared furiously at her. She estimated he was twelve feet tall now, and presumably more powerful than he had been before.

Arm snapping to a firing position again, she fired off several more cryo-blasts at Lung – who responded with a roar and several bursts of flame to match them. The two blasts collided with bursts of steam, fogging up the battlefield.

 _'This isn't working,'_ Dragon thought, glancing around, _'This is bad. I was able to confirm there was nobody else nearby but the criminals before I intervened, but if he gets much bigger, the fight will spill over onto the city. I need to put him down now, but how can I do that without killing any innocent people?'_

Her pupils flicked left, right, down… and up. _'That could work!'_

Her eyes then widened as a system alert popped up. Ducking franticly down onto both palms, she managed to avoid the claw-swipe of the furious Lung. As it passed over her back, her right arm changed again, and she fired all of her limb boosters – colliding bodily with Lung and lifting him up into the air.

She continued firing all four boosters as much as she could – the two fighters quickly gaining height until they found themselves above the buildings they had previously been duelling between. Not giving the still-transforming Lung a chance to get his bearings, she kicked off underneath him, arms fusing together and morphing into what could only be described as a large, complex-looking cannon. Her entire body seemed to light up with sparking electricity as the two combatants hung in mid-air, before, with a roar, she opened fire.

The enormous beam blasted out from her arm-cannon, engulfing Lung entirely as it continued up toward the heavens like an enormous pillar of light, stretching up past the clouds and wider than a large building. The beam seemed to light up the night for all of a few moments.

The recoil from the beam blasted Dragon down towards the earth – angling her thrusters, she tried to aim her landing in the same uninhabited section of the alleys she had initially encountered Lung in. Landing close to her original landing crater, the impact was far larger this time, making a crater several meters across.

Sighing in relief as the fight seemed to be over, she got to her feet. "That was intense," she mused, "But I knew of Lung's reputation. If I can defeat someone on his level… I'm that much closer to being able to stop them."

She clenched her fist in determination as memories flicked through her mind – her father's panicked face, telling her to leave, the entire world falling apart as Newfoundland sank into the sea, the scaled monster that haunted her memories…

The system alert was the only thing that saved her as the claw smashed down onto the position she had just been standing in. As it was, she still lost one of her arms, completely skewered on one of Lung's massive claws as he growled at her.

Now something between twenty-five and thirty feet tall, with two huge wings emerging from his back, Lung looked more like an Endbringer than a cape. His head shot up toward her – then he burst forward, far faster than he had at any previous point in the fight.

 _'What?'_ She barely managed to think as one of his claws tore through her abdomen – while she couldn't feel pain, the loss of combat functionality was something she was instantly aware of. Desperately trying to bring her other arm up to blast the monster, his other arm swatted her away, sending her flying toward one of the buildings and tearing off her left leg.

She didn't make it to the building. She was intercepted – by Lung's outstretched hand again, batting her down to the concrete. She bounced off the floor, yet more parts flying away from her body, before her eyes registered his intake of breath, presumably for another fire attack.

 _'I see… I underestimated him, and overestimated myself,'_ Dragon thought in regret, ' _There is no way to survive this attack. I can not self-destruct, or I will destroy a significant part of the city and end many innocent lives. Father… I'm sorry. I have failed.'_

Lung reared back, ready to unleash the flames that would end her life.

Then a fist collided with his solar plexus.

And reduced the top half of his body to something resembling a dark red milkshake.

"Man, I guess that fight wasn't going to drag-on," the newcomer said in monotone, a dopey smile fixed on her face as Lung's legs, now the largest single part of him, fell to the ground, "Ba-dum-tiss."

The cyborg gaped in uncomprehending shock as her mangled body hit the ground.

It was a girl, a teenager, with brown hair, an utterly bland face that made her look completely uninterested with the world around her, and wearing a rather low-budget superhero costume – a yellow spandex body-suit, with red boots and gloves, a belt with a round, bronze buckle, and -was that an actual _cape?_

Apparently totally unconcerned with her handiwork, the unknown girl turned around and began walking away.

"W-wait!" Dragon managed to cry out from her rather pathetic position on the ground.

"Uh, yes?" the unknown girl turned to stare at her.

"Who are you?" the cyborg asked desperately.

"Oh, I'm Taylor," the girl replied plainly, "I'm a girl who is a hero for a hobby."

"Please!" Dragon pleaded, "Take me as your student!"

The girl blinked. "Eh? OK." She then started walking away, before pausing and turning back to Dragon again.

"Wait, what?"

* * *

Meanwhile, from their position atop a nearby roof, four criminal teens stared in shock.

"Tattletale," Regent finally said, "This super-villain thing? You know, tweaking the nose of the superheroes, committing crimes, generally doing _anything that might piss either one of those two off_ … I'm not really feeling it anymore."

"Not really feeling it?" Grue snorted weakly, "Starting tomorrow, I'm looking for a legal job, I'm hanging up this mask and I'm never committing crime again."

Bitch and her dogs cowered over in the corner. Seeing a multi-ton monstrosity whining with it's tail between it's legs was quite surreal.

"...Tattletale?" Regent asked, "You're unusually quiet over there. What the hell just happened?"

"She..." Tattletale managed to sputter, "She was holding back. She blew away a ramped-up Lung in _one punch_ and she was fucking _holding back_. What the fuck would happen if she didn't hold back – oh god," she got dizzy, falling to her knees as her power started filling in the blanks, "Oh god. Fuck. No. No. Nope. I'm not doing this any more. No more crime, I'm going legit, I don't care how many guns he points at my head, fuck him, nope, nope, nope..."

Glancing at their team-mate, then sharing a look of unusual concern, Regent and Grue picked up the near-catatonic Thinker and started the arduous task of making their escape - before the Protectorate got there in inevitable force.

After all, there was no way in hell they wanted to be found at _this_ scene.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: And another quick-fire chapter while I'm on a roll.**

 **Disclaimer: One Punch Man belongs to ONE. Worm belongs to Wildbow. The only thing I own is my muse.**

* * *

"What the hell could have possibly done this?"

Armsmaster repressed the irritated twitch that came to the fore when Assault repeated that line for what he estimated to be the fortieth time that night. Yes, the situation was unusual, yes, one of the most dangerous Parahumans in the city had apparently been obliterated by some kind of enormously powerful energy beam if what they had all saw earlier in the night was any indication, but surely he could have said a different damned line at some point?

"Armsmaster," his attention switched to his second-in-command, Miss Militia, "What have you found from those parts?"

He sighed. "So far, surprisingly little."

The only evidence they had of whom it was that engaged Lung (apparently ramped-up almost as much as they'd ever seen him achieve if the size of his lower body at death was any indication) were the pieces of cybernetic body strewn around the impromptu battlefield.

"What I can say," he continued, "Is that the parts here were not designed hollow to allow for a human body to fit inside – in other words, they came from an actual cybernetic body, not a tinkertech armour suit. The damage to the parts also seems to have come from being torn, presumably by large claws, as Lung would undoubtedly have had if he reached that stage," he nodded to the pair of disembodied legs.

"They weren't torn off by an explosion?" Miss Militia asked.

"I know what you're thinking," Armsmaster shook his head, "I don't believe it was a suicide attack that killed Lung. For one, that beam was too focused – one would expect a suicide attack to be a self-destruct function of some kind, where the energy would be released omni-directionally. Also, the damage to Lung does not match that hypothesis. I think the robot, cyborg or android responsible was either intact enough to escape before we got here, or had assistance."

Miss Militia frowned. "So we know very little, then."

"For now," he confirmed, "I would remind you that we only just got here. Perhaps when I take these parts back to the lab for further testing, I will discover something else."

At least, he certainly hoped he would. A new player running around with the kind of power displayed here was good for absolutely nobody.

As he watched the PRT teams try to shift the remains of what was formerly the most feared parahuman in the city, he reflected that the sooner they had a clearer picture, the better.

* * *

 _-A Week Later-_

"Oh, it's you," Taylor blinked as she opened the door slightly, "...who are you again?"

"It – it's Dragon!" Dragon exclaimed, "You saved me from Lung last week, and agreed to take me on as your pupil? You gave me your address?"

Taylor gained a sudden look of realisation. "Oh, yeah, that… I didn't think you'd actually show up."

"I am determined to succeed," Dragon smiled, mistaking the teen's annoyance as her being impressed by the cyborg's dedication.

"Well… whatever. You may as well come in," Taylor said, opening the door fully to let the would-be-heroine inside, "Dad, I've got a visitor."

"Who is it?" Dragon registered the presence of a balding, middle-aged man, standing in the kitchen by the fridge, holding a cup of coffee.

"A cyborg who was fighting some dragon guy I punched out last week."

Taylor's father blinked. "That's nice, dear." He then looked down at his cup of coffee, set it down on the kitchen top, opened the fridge, and took out a beer instead.

Dragon sat on a one-piece chair in the main room of the house, while Taylor sat on the sofa, looking at her with that same uninterested expression she had when the Cyborg had first met the other hero last week.

"Huh," Taylor tilted her head, "How are you back in one piece?"

"Ah," Dragon nodded, "I may be a cyborg, but I also triggered with a Tinker ability – I have the power to replicate other Tinker's technology, allowing me to add it to my body. Because of this, I am fully capable of maintaining myself as long as parts are available, and I keep a stockpile."

"OK," Taylor said blankly, "So why are you here?"

"Why… well..." Dragon took a deep breath.

"Wait."

She faltered before she could begin her explanation.

"Why did you just breathe so deeply?" Taylor asked suspiciously, "You weren't about to give me your whole life story, were you? In fact – why would you need to take a deep breath anyway? Do you even breathe?"

"Well..."

"Forget that," Taylor said flatly, "Now, explain. Why you're here. One paragraph. Go."

"I… but I had an entire speech lined up," Dragon protested, looking slightly crestfallen.

"Speeches are for people who are trying to get elected," Taylor said in annoyance, "Take it or leave it!"

"As you wish, Master," Dragon began.

"Don't call me that."

"As you wish, teacher."

"That's even worse!"

"My father was Andrew Richter," Dragon began, "He created me, in an attempt to create the world's first artificial hero. We lived in Newfoundland, but Leviathan attacked, and destroyed our home, as well as killing my father. I have made it my mission to avenge him by stopping Leviathan and the other Endbringers, and you are the first person I have met who is powerful enough to help me."

Taylor nodded. "I see."

"That reminds me, teacher," Dragon mused thoughtfully, "As powerful as you are, why haven't you stopped the Endbringers yet?"

"Uh..." Taylor began to sweat. _'I'm not sure telling her I never had the motivation to go and find them would go down well.'_

"Could it be that there is an even greater threat waiting in the wings?" Dragon pondered, "And if you were to divert your attention to the Endbringers, this greater evil would strike?"

"Uh… yes, you figured it out very quickly," Taylor nodded hastily, "My pupil is a clever one."

"So you have agreed to take me as your pupil?" Dragon asked in delight.

"Damn it," Taylor palmed her forehead. "OK, fine, whatever," she sighed, before looking at the cyborg, "Dragon, how old are you?"

"I am eight years old."

Silence.

"Eight," Taylor finally repeated with a twitching eye.

"Yes," Dragon nodded, "I was created in June of Two-Thousand and Three. Is there a problem, teacher?"

"HELL YES THERE'S A PROBLEM!" Taylor snapped, "WHY DOES AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD LOOK OLDER THAN I DO?"

"Ah," Dragon nodded, "I understand. This body was designed to help me blend in with human society."

Taylor stared at the other girl's obviously mechanical arms, torso and eyes in disbelief. "I think they half-assed it, then."

"What was that?" Dragon asked obliviously.

"Nothing," Taylor shook her head, "Look, as… young," her eye twitched again, "As you are, I'm sure you'll surpass me in no time. I was five years older than you when I started training at thirteen."

"What- really? You genuinely think so?" Dragon asked in awe, "This is wonderful! With your help, I can surely become strong enough to stop the Endbringers and prevent Newfoundland from ever happening again! What do you need me to do first?"

"Uh..." Taylor bit her lip, before she had an idea.

She tried to look as grave as she could. "Dragon."

The cyborg stiffened at the change in tone. "Yes, teacher?"

"Power of this level is not something that is easy to obtain," Taylor began seriously, "I'll need to take some time, maybe a few days, to prepare a proper training regimen for you."

"Ah," Dragon nodded, "I understand. Power of that magnitude can not be easy to attain. Do not worry, Teacher, I am patient."

"That's good," Taylor intoned, giving an internal sigh of relief.

"In that case, I will let you get started right away," Dragon said, getting up, "You will not be disappointed with me as a pupil. I promise, I will soak up everything you need me to learn."

Taylor merely nodded, continuing to nod as she showed the Cyborg out of the house. She then entered the kitchen.

"Dad," she asked.

"Yes, dear?" Danny Hebert asked, halfway down his fifth bottle of beer.

"I don't suppose you have any idea how to train a Cyborg to become stronger than an Endbringer, do you?"

"No, dear."

"Didn't think so," Taylor sighed, "Worth a try, at least."

"Yes, dear."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: One Punch Man belongs to ONE, Worm belongs to Wildbow, the only thing I own is my muse.**

* * *

Tony's was a rather obscure café, rarely seeing many visitors. This was probably the main reason there wasn't more of a commotion at the unusual sight of a partially-mechanical young woman and a teenager in a cape sitting down to drink some tea.

"So," Dragon commented, "It's been a few days. I was wondering if you'd gotten any ideas on where to start?"

Taylor internally grimaced. No, she had not. But she didn't want to tell her 'student' that.

"Well..."

She thought furiously as she tried to think up some other means of distracting her would-be protege.

Fortunately for her – some things happen exactly when you need them to.

"I finally found you," an out-of-breath voice panted.

Taylor and Dragon both looked up from their seats at the newcomer. It was a teenaged girl, possibly around Taylor's age, in casual clothing, with blonde hair and freckles. She looked around nervously as she tried to catch her breath.

"Huh?" Taylor blinked, "You mean me?"

"Yes, you," the girl agreed, "Well, both of you, I suppose."

Taylor was beginning to get feelings of deja vu. "I haven't saved you from a dragon recently, have I?"

To her credit, the girl didn't even blink at what most would consider an odd question. "Yes, actually, but that's not why I'm here. I need your help. They're about to get here – wait," she blinked, "No, they're pulling back. Why are they pulling back?"

"Why don't you start with who you are and who is after you?" Dragon suggested.

"Smart one," the girl gave a weak grin, "I never mentioned that someone was after me. Okay," she sat down, and took a deep breath, before pausing to glance between the two. "Ah, got it. One paragraph only."

"How did you-"

"All will be explained. So, my name's Lisa. Until recently, I was part of a villain group known as the Undersiders, which I was forced into against my will by a villain called Coil. The group broke up recently and I decided to try and get out from under his thumb, and for that, I need your help," she looked between the pair of them, "If I'm with you two, there's nothing he can do to get me."

Dragon's eyes began flashing. "Searching… ah, the Undersiders, a minor parahuman villain group, known for committing petty thefts and being infamously difficult to pin down. And… Coil, a mysterious Supervillain, little is known about him other than that he uses professional mercenaries with high-grade equipment."

Lisa stared. "Did you just _google_ us?"

"No," Dragon shook her head, "I ran a quick search on several different search engines, actually."

"That is so handy," Lisa shook her head, "Anyway – my cape name was Tattletale. I'm a Thinker, my power is a kind of super-intuition – I can take a few, barely-connected pieces of information and piece together a full picture that should be impossible to find out."

"Ah," Dragon nodded, "That explains how you knew teacher has no patience for long-winded speeches."

"Because she chewed you out for it," Lisa replied in slight amusement, before her expression turned nervous again. "Wait, they're trying agai – or... not?" She frowned, palming her forehead, "I don't know what he's doing, but my power keeps telling me they're about to come for me based on a few clues, then nothing happens. Anyway," she looked at the two, "I've said my piece. I never wanted to be a villain, I just wanted to live my life, free. Can you help me?"

"N-" Taylor was cut off.

"Of course we can," Dragon said earnestly, "We're heroes, aren't we? The least we can do is investigate Coil and verify your story, and keep you safe until we have done so."

Taylor opened her mouth to protest, before she realised this was, in fact, an excellent opportunity, "-o problem," she finished pleasantly, "This will be a good test for you," she said to Dragon, "So I can... evaluate your current level properly."

Dragon blinked. "You set this up?"

"Er, well-" Taylor found herself cut off again.

"I wondered why you asked me to meet you here," Lisa cut in with an innocent-seeming grin.

"I see," Dragon nodded gratefully, "I knew I shouldn't doubt you. So the first step on the path is to find and defeat this 'Coil'."

"Eh… sure," Taylor agreed, "That's it."

"Now then…" Dragon's eyes flashed again as she began looking up information, "Operating in the city suggests that his main base of operations is here as well. To find out where, the easiest solution would be to find one or a group of his operatives and trail them back to his base," she glanced at Taylor, "Am I correct?"

"Y...yeah," Taylor nodded, sweating, "Good work." _'She's_ _already_ _far better at this than I am!'_

"Thank you," Dragon smiled at the acknowledgement, "I will begin my search immediately. I will contact you when I know more!" With that, she swiftly left the café.

There was a moment of silence.

"Soooooo…" Lisa drawled, "I couldn't help but notice you were stringing her on, there."

Taylor frowned. "Not at -"

"She's trying to learn how to become as powerful as you, but you're reluctant to train her – how even _did_ you become as powerful as -" Lisa blinked, "Wait... you don't _know?"_

"...No. Damn it, no I don't," Taylor slumped, "I have no idea! I just started training a few years ago with this exercise regimen from a book I got at the library, it wasn't anything crazy, just something to keep in shape, and then at some point, my hair dropped out and I realised I'd become ridiculously strong! I just do this hero-ing thing as a hobby because I don't know what else to do!"

Lisa stared. "That's a wig? You're _bald?"_

"THAT was what you picked up on in that statement?!"

Lisa coughed. "Ah. Sorry. Er, so what kind of exercise regimen did you pick up?"

"One hundred sit-ups, One-hundred push-ups, One-hundred squats, and 10 kilometers of running, every day."

"So, heavy for a thirteen-year-old, but nothing a dedicated athlete undergoing that sort of training couldn't handle?" Lisa frowned, "And you're sure you didn't trigger."

"Pretty sure," Taylor shrugged, "There was no 'worst day of my life' when I suddenly gained powers, it just… happened."

"And obviously you can't tell Dragon to do the same exercise, because there's no way it would work."

Taylor nodded, dipping a cookie into her tea.

"But what I don't get," Lisa continued, "Is how everyone hasn't heard of you yet? Why haven't you rolled across the world, hunting down down all the major-" her eyes widened, "Are you for real? You can't be bothered to go out and _save the world_ because it would be too _boring?"_

Taylor took a sip of her tea. No point denying it now, she supposed. "Yep."

Lisa stared at her incredulously. "You don't care. Why don't you care? You're… no," she furrowed her brow at the other girl, "You don't really care about _anything_ any more, do you?"

"Nope," Taylor yawned, "The most concerning thing about it is how little concern I feel. Woah," she said in wonder, "That was a crazy sentence."

Lisa shook her head. "And I thought my powers had screwed _me_ up. You're broken in so many ways."

"Okay."

* * *

Coil was vexed.

He had sent his capture team in on two separate occasions, and both times they had been stopped.

No, not stopped. Utterly and completely _demolished_ , was probably the better way to describe it.

It seemed that his wayward asset had gotten assistance – parahuman assistance. And not the other former Undersiders, either – but two new capes, of significant power.

He mulled over his options thoughtfully, before tapping on his phone. "Can you bring Trickster to my office? Inform him that I have a task that requires his team's attention."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Worm belongs to Wildbow, Onepunch Man belongs to ONE, none of it belongs to me.**

* * *

"So far, I have had no luck tracking down this 'Coil' character," Dragon confessed, "It's rather frustrating. He is extraordinarily slippery."

"Okay," Taylor nodded, taking a sip from her cup.

"I mean, it has been three days now, and for me to not even have found a trail yet is… teacher, I feel the need to ask," Dragon finally voiced the thought on her mind.

"Yes?" Taylor looked at her questioningly.

"Why do we spend so much time at this café?"

They were, once again, sitting at the same table in which they met Lisa a few days prior.

"It's because she likes the tea," Lisa supplied helpfully as she cut her slice of cake.

Dragon blinked. "Ah," she paused, "It is nice."

"Wait," Taylor asked curiously, "You can taste things? I thought you were a robot."

Dragon nodded. "I was designed with a sense of taste, and any food or drink I intake gets processed to a special kind of bio-fuel that provides me with an extra reserve of energy through the process of-"

Taylor gave her an annoyed look.

"-Yes," Dragon said sheepishly, "Yes, I can."

"So… you've had no luck tracking him down. Any ideas on how you're going to find him?" Lisa asked in concern.

"Well..." Dragon's eyes lit up as information flickered across them, "We could always let them come to us. Teacher, we are about to have company."

Taylor had just about tilted her head to ask what her unwanted protégé meant, when she suddenly found herself outside the cafe. "Uh… what?"

She turned around, blinking as she registered a car, flying toward her at enormous speed. She calmly leaned back to let it fly over her head, where it collided with the building behind with an earth-shattering boom. Large pieces of concrete flew from the impact site, scattering the street around.

"What the hell?" She glanced over at one of the strange faces present outside the café. A hook-nosed man in a strange, black suit and top hat leaned against a lamp-post, shaking his head, "You missed, Ballistic."

"I didn't miss, Trickster," The newly-crowned Ballistic, in his bulky armour, gritted his teeth from behind his square mask, "She dodged! You know how fast she is!" His arms shot forward, tapping two pieces of newly-created debris – which then rocketed toward Taylor at high-speed. Face unchanging, she turned to her left and then her right to let the pieces sail harmlessly past her.

Ballistic took two steps forward, this time tapping several medium-sized pieces of concrete, blasting them toward Taylor not unlike the gun batteries of a battleship. The pieces flew at Taylor's position, kicking up a large amount of dust, obscuring the area in a thick cloud.

"Did you get her?" Trickster asked cautiously.

"I don't know," Ballistic replied, "But I doubt it."

"Yeah, me too."

They both jumped as they whirled around to see none other than their target, waving at them from several meters behind.

"Hi."

"What the- raagh!" With a grunt, Ballistic let loose with a hail of high-velocity ball-bearings. Taylor's waving hand suddenly blurred, coming to a stop in a clenched fist.

The two capes stared.

She opened her fist, letting several dozen ball-bearings fall to the ground.

"Wha… what the hell?" Ballistic's jaw dropped, "How fucking overpowered _is_ this girl?"

"Too overpowered," Trickster grimaced, "Plan B!"

In an instant, Trickster had changed places – with what looked to be some kind of mannequin. Taylor idly noted it looked to be about the same size as her.

Ballistic tapped the replica, blasting it – not at Taylor, but into the sky.

"You missed," Taylor pointed out, then blinked, as she realised she was no longer on the ground, but was instead in mid-air above the battlefield.

 _"Sundancer! Now_ _!"_ Trickster roared.

A young woman in black armour held her hands aloft atop one of the roofs below, before the space Taylor was in erupted with a large, miniature sun. The glaring heat from the ball of stellar matter could be felt for miles around, heating up the immediate part of the city by several degrees.

Letting her arms drop, Sundancer let the ball dissipate – and was startled to see that her target was gone completely. "Wh-what the hell? Trickster!" she shouted, panicking, "You told me she was strong enough to survive that!"

For his part, Trickster was also surprised. "Well," he said after a moment, "...Coil did say to stall her. Her being dead stalls her pretty much indefinitely."

His attention was distracted as the wall of the café erupted, and two unusual figures flew out.

* * *

Dragon stood up, tensed for combat as Taylor was replaced with some kind of mannequin. "What on earth?"

"Crap," Lisa was sweating, eyes darting around, "It's the Travellers. Since when did Coil have them on his payroll?"

"Searching," Dragon's eyes began flashing through different screens, "The Travellers. A group of nomadic villains with a variety of powers. Consisting of Trickster, Sundancer, Ballistic and Genesis – other members are rumoured but not confirmed. So that was Trickster's ability -" her eyes narrowed, then she threw Tattletale aside as the door exploded inwards, most of the frame and part of the wall going with it.

The enormous, horned monster charged head-long at Dragon, horn poised to skewer her torso. Dragon spread her feet, and, right as the beast was about to connect, her arms shot out, grabbing the horn and the head and forcing her to skid back several paces, before, with a small grunt of exertion, she lifted the unnaturally large animal bodily over her head, throwing it clear across the room. It smashed into the far wall, crumbling large portions of it down into a pile of rubble.

"And you must be Genesis," Dragon said coolly, observing the wreckage carefully.

In response, the rubble exploded – and the other two occupants of the café (the owner had long since fled at the first signs of a cape-fight) got their first look at the creature assailing them. A huge, Gorilla-esque body, with powerful arms and fists to match, tough, leathery grey skin with a thick neck and head not unlike that of a Rhinoceros, there was no doubt was a creature built for power. It roared, and charged at Dragon, right arm cocked back for a thunderous punch.

Her arms shot up to block, and the hit thundered into her guard, forcing her back several paces again – the great ape-beast continued the assault, and Dragon ducked under another swing, before leaning to the side to avoid a hay-maker – turning into the punch, she gripped the outstretched arm with both hands.

Gritting her teeth, she pulled into a forward roll – the force of her pull yanked the startled creature off its feet and over her body, slamming it hard into the ground. Roaring in pain and anger, it lashed out with one of its powerful arms, forcing Dragon to jump back out of the way.

As her opponent clambered to it's feet, Dragon watched impassively. "You must know by now that you can't defeat me," she said, "So why are you trying? What is your goal?"

"It's not supposed to beat you!" Lisa shouted, "It's a diversion!"

"A diversion?" Dragon blinked, then here eyes widened as a loud noise and a bright light shone in from outside, followed by a wave of heat, increasing the ambient temperature significantly. "Teacher!"

Not wasting a moment, she crouched into a sprinter's starting position, before rocketing forward, tackling Genesis directly through the wall and out onto the street.

"No, you moron! That's not what the diversion's fo-ugh," Lisa's panicked shout was cut off as a solid impact to the back of her head knocked her unconscious.

"Sharp," Circus complimented, "A shame the other one wasn't as sharp as you." She turned to the two masked mercenaries beside her, handing the unconscious girl to one of them, "Come on. Let's get out of here, and make it quick, the Travelers can handle themselves."

Nodding, the man took the former undersider in a bridal carry, and they hurried out the back door of the cafe, where an unmarked van was waiting impatiently.

* * *

The sudden appearance of the cyborg and the monster startled the Travelers slightly, but to their credit, they recovered quickly, Ballistic instantly opening up with a hail of ball-bearings that Dragon darted aside to avoid in an impressive display of speed.

Meanwhile, Sundancer was staring in shock at the result of her attack. "I didn't want to kill anyone," she said quietly.

"Man, that's a really useful power," Taylor commented cheerfully, "Do you think you could help me with my garden? If I can grow vegetables in the winter, I'll save so much money!"

"Wha-" Sundancer barely had time to respond before Taylor's finger flicked her lightly in the forehead – knocking her unconscious immediately.

Taylor then jumped down to the main battlefield, flicking a ball bearing at the ground next to Ballistic – which promptly exploded from the force, knocking the villain flying and leaving him unmoving on the ground, several meters away.

Taylor's fist then shot out to her right, obliterating Genesis' Rhino-Gorilla form entirely as it tried to attack her.

Trickter took a nervous step back. "Wha – what – _what the hell are you?"_ he asked, sounding strangled.

"Ah," Taylor scratched her head, "I'm a heroing hobbyist."

Trickster activated his power, looking to change Taylor's position to something further away to give him time to try and escape. Nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing happened.

"What the hell?" Trickster demanded in a panic, "Why isn't my power working on you?"

"Oh, it is," Taylor informed him, "But I don't really want to go back in there, so I'm just moving back whenever you try to swap me with something."

Trickster's jaw dropped. "You're _that_ fast?" He then promptly got down on his hands and knees, "I'm sorry. Please don't kill me."

"Of course not," Dragon's deceptively pleasant voice was closer now, and he looked up, only to go pale as he looked down a metallic palm with a glowing centre, "Of course, we'll need you to tell us everything you know about the villain that sent you."

"We will? Ah, I mean," Taylor's face turned serious, "Yeah. We will."

Trickster shivered. "We were supposed to distract you two."

Dragon frowned. "Distract us for what?"

"So that another team could move in and capture Tattletale!" Trickster quickly clarified.

Dragon's eyes widened, before she turned toward the café. "No life signs – no!" She clenched her fist in frustration and anger, "That's what she was trying to tell me!" She turned back to Taylor. "Teacher, we need to go and rescue her!"

"Okay," Taylor agreed, turning to walk away, "Let's go."

Dragon paused as her mentor began walking away from the scene, "Wait," she questioned, "You know where they are?"

Smoothly, Taylor turned her walk around in a half-circle and headed back toward the artificial heroine and defeated villain, "G-good catch, student! I knew I wouldn't be able to slip anything past you! Who could forget a little detail like that?"

"Uh," Dragon blinked, "All right." Her face turned serious as she turned back to Trickster, who was trying, and failing, to look as small as possible. "Now then, Trickster," her eyes started glowing, "Where would they have taken her?"

Trickster seemed to be conflicted – then he looked between the pair who had effortlessly taken down his team. He gulped. He then started talking.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Worm belongs to Wildbow. One Punch Man belongs to ONE. None of it belongs to me.**

* * *

"Right! Turn right! Oh god, please slow down!"

If anyone had been out and about in the urban areas near the docks of Brockton Bay, they would have seen an unusual sight.

That is, a man in a black suit and mask, sobbing out directions while being carried underarm by a teenage girl in a yellow suit and white cape, with what would have appeared to be a cyborg following close behind as they leapt from roof-top to roof-top.

"Did he say right?" Taylor called over her shoulder.

"Yes," Dragon confirmed, "We are also quite close to the location where I lost one of what I suspected to be Coil's subordinates."

"Cool," Taylor nodded absently, leaping over a rooftop, "Oi, you," she directed at Trickster, "Are we close yet?"

"Yes! Yes! Why couldn't you have just asked for directions instead of doing this?" He wailed as loudly as he could into the wind.

"What did he say?" Taylor asked Dragon again.

"He said that we're close, and questioned the reasoning behind bringing him along instead of merely asking him for directions."

"Oh, come on," Taylor rolled her eyes, "As if you'd give us the right directions. That's, like, the oldest bad-guy trick in the book.

Trickster's attempted protest was promptly cut off as another, longer jump had him screaming again. "L-left! Left here! Go straight after that and you'll see an un-marked warehouse! Just please put me down!"

Taylor glanced back.

"Left, then straight until we see an un-marked warehouse," Dragon dutifully repeated. "With a panicked request to be put down."

"Gotcha," Taylor nodded, turning and leaping again.

They did indeed find an un-marked warehouse. It looked completely plain.

"This the place?" Taylor asked simply.

"Yes," Trickster managed to say through his tears, "This is it, I swear, just please stop jumping, I don't want to jump any more, please don't make me jump again..."

Dragon's eyes lit up as information flickered across them. "My scans are being blocked," she frowned, "If it were an ordinary warehouse, it would not need that kind of protection. That does suggest he has led us to the right place."

"Cool," Taylor said, before lightly flicking Trickster's head with her index finger, knocking him out. "He was getting annoying," she explained as Dragon looked at her.

Her metallic companion nodded. "So how do we approach this, teacher? Should we be subtle, or -"

Taylor blurred forward. An enormous crash saw the warehouse door cave forward, before rocketing into the building, causing panicked shouts. Taylor stood in the now-open warehouse doorway, fist extended, looking at the team of armed guards who stood, stupefied, inside.

"Hi. I'm here to punch your boss."

They stared for a moment.

Finally, the leader of the team got his act together enough to bark an order. "Open fire!"

Five fully-automatic assault rifles opened up. Taylor's hand blurred in front of her. After a few seconds, the burst of fire finished.

Taylor held out her fist, before opening it up to let dozens of crushed bullets fall to the ground.

"Can you tell me where he is?"

The leader's hand went up to his earpiece. He wasn't fast enough.

A wave of indeterminable energy passed through the room at high speed – shorting out all of the lights, as well as the soldier's electronics, up to and including their communications equipment.

"I apologise, but we can't let you do that either," Dragon said pleasantly as she stepped into the warehouse.

"Woah. What was that?" Taylor asked curiously.

"I call it an interference wave. Think of it as being similar to a localised EMP," Dragon explained, "It works by utilising the principle of -" she paused at Taylor's glare, "It can make most electronics stop working temporarily."

Taylor nodded, before she _moved_. In an instant, all five men dropped to the ground like puppets with cut strings.

"...Teacher," Dragon began hesitantly, "Did you not want to question one of them?"

Taylor blinked, then palmed her forehead. "Ah, damn it. Knew I had forgotten something. Oi, you," she immediately began to shake the nearest guard, "Wake up."

Dragon, meanwhile, observed the room, and particularly the floor intently, before her visual scans picked up what she was looking for. "I've found it," she announced, "We were able to observe the outside of the building, so we had a general idea of the dimensions of the warehouse. This room fills almost the entirety of those projected dimensions, so we know that there is no additional construction above or to the sides -"

Taylor cleared her throat, looking at Dragon expectantly.

"There's a trap-door in the floor," the cyborg said with an artificial blush, pointing at the far side of the room.

"Wait," Taylor's brow furrowed in confusion, "Why can you even blush? That doesn't seem like the sort of thing a super combat robot needs to have."

"Father thought it would be beneficial to help me blend in with humans," Dragon explained.

"I'm starting to think your dad had a pretty low opinion of how observant humans are," Taylor mumbled, strolling over to look at the trap-door. Reaching down, her fingers forced their way into the thick metal plating, before, with a gentle yank, she pulled the entrance off it's hinges.

"Let's go," she said cheerfully, stepping inside, Dragon following behind, somewhat more cautiously.

* * *

"Lost contact?" Coil grimaced.

 _"Yes, sir. The alarm was raised briefly before all systems in that area shut down. We're sending a team to investigate now."_

"I see," the super-villain took a deep breath, "Keep me informed."

He ended the call. _'So they've found me again,'_ he thought with a wince.

It started about a week ago – when he suddenly received notice that the Undersiders, his little super-villain pet project, had collectively decided to forgo a life of crime after witnessing the end of Lung.

Most of them were merely regrettable losses, but losses he could handle – Tattletale, however, was one asset he had not been prepared to let go of. So naturally, he tried to re-obtain her.

'Tried' being the key word. His first capture team was annihilated by an unknown cape. So he tried a different approach – and they were annihilated again. And again. And again.

Eventually, on one attempt, his men, with cape assistance, had been able to somewhat slow down the extremely powerful and dangerous android with the correct equipment.

That was when the other one stepped in.

Bullets didn't work. Lasers didn't work. Nets, gas, poison, radiation, nothing even phased the caped teenager who Tattletale was now hiding behind. All of the capes in his employ were obliterated, every time.

It got worse from there. The android then started tracking him down, again and again, forcing him to split more and more time-lines and create more and more difficult security measures to ward her off. Eventually, he knew, he would run out of ideas, and she would be able to find him again without his being able to stop it.

So, he did something that, if anyone actually knew his character, they would say was rather unusual for him.

He took a risk.

Using the Travellers as a distraction, he managed to launch a successful attempt to capture Tattletale and bring her back. What he needed, more than anything, was information about the two humanoid _monsters_ that were inevitably going to come knocking down his door, and if that last report was to be believed, already had.

So he began interrogating Tattletale with both of his time-lines, in an attempt to obtain the information he needed as soon as possible. This time-line was the carrot, where he promised her freedom and great reward for any information she could provide about the pair. The other time-line was the stick – where he was not being _quite_ so gentle in his approach.

He had not gained much information from her so far – but he had gained enough information about the caped girl's capabilities to be extraordinarily afraid.

He knew that he only had one chance at stopping her – and that was with herself.

He typed a number into his phone.

"I need to speak to Noelle."

* * *

The last of the mercenaries dropped to the ground, unconscious as Dragon lowered her palm. "That seems to be the last of them, teacher," she reported, "I'm getting other life-signs from further inside the base, however. Several dozen – including one unusually large one."

"Hmm… sounds like the secret weapon," Taylor mused.

"Secret weapon?" Dragon blinked in confusion.

"Yeah," Taylor explained, "We're in the bad guy's secret base, right? So obviously, this is where he keeps his trump card. It's going to be a giant monster, or a super-powerful robot, or, like, a cape with an uncontrollably dangerous power," she began to smile, "Where did you say the big life-sign was again?"

"Straight down this corridor, then take every left," Dragon replied, "All the others are to the right. There is one who is in a sitting position and has not moved at all in the last few minutes."

"Okay," Taylor told her, "I'll go check that out, you go and save… er..."

"Lisa," Dragon supplied helpfully.

"Yeah, her. You go and save her," Taylor said, then quickly added, "I'm sure it's within your capabilities."

Dragon stood a little straighter. "Thank you for your trust in me. I won't let you down!"

The pair then reached the end of the corridor, parting ways at a fork in the labyrinthine structure.

"Left, left, left..." Taylor muttered to herself.

* * *

The sparsely-decorated room lit up, awakening it's sole inhabitant.

" _Noelle,"_ the recognisable voice of her would-be benefactor came through the speakers installed around the ceiling, _"We have intruders in the base. I believe that they may be here for you –_ _I believe they may be from the Protectorate, they have learned about you and want to use you as a weapon._ _"_

Four enormous feet clambered as the enormous shape unfurled, the cruel mockery of a centaur-like being rising to her full height.

" _I will do everything I can to protect you,"_ Coil's voice continued, _"But they have broken through my defensive measures with ease so far. If they reach you, I implore you, your life is more important than my base. Do not hold back when defending yourself,_ _I do not want you to lose your life before we can finish the cure-_ _"_

Whatever Coil was about to say next was cut off, as the wall exploded.

A lone figure walked in – a brown-haired girl in a cape.

"Hi," she said, waving a hand, "Are you the secret weapon?"

The S-Class threat that, in another world, would have been designated Echidna, let loose an earth-shattering scream.

* * *

Dragon ran through the corridor, intent on a rather spacious room that seemed to house more life-signs than any of the others. Approaching the door, she dropped, turning her run into a slide that she aided with the boosters on her hand.

She kicked through the door feet-first. Bullets and lasers instantly filled the space where her chest would have been had she entered conventionally. While these were probably not enough to do any kind of damage to her, it was good not to get complacent.

Spinning onto one knee, her palms shot up – and she let loose with an extremely quick volley of stunning blasts. Each one found a target, and ten armed guards dropped to the floor.

Her eyes shifted to the side, before she jumped up and into a somersault to avoid the burst of flame that exploded onto her former position. Another burst flew at her head, but her palm rose again – firing a much larger blast that engulfed it entirely, and continued across the room toward the sender. The gender-ambiguous criminal Circus cartwheeled to the side to avoided the flame burst in an impressive display of acrobatics, but as soon as they landed on their feet, they were crumpled over by a gut punch from Dragon, who had already closed the distance between the two.

Her opponent was sent flying backwards, before rolling to a stop to the side, unmoving. Dragon then looked up as an alert popped up on her systems – before rocketing back using her palm bursts as a booster. A large suit of crude-looking armour burst through the wall, fist swinging through the space where the heroine had been.

The battlesuit-wearing villain wasted no time in charging directly at her, fist reared back for a powerful punch. Dragon crouched slightly – as the punch flew toward her, she grasped the outstretched arm with both hands, and, turning into a judo throw, tossed the suit clear across the room with a grunt of exertion.

To it's credit, the suit managed to land on its feet – before multiple ports opened up on his armour, revealing a variety of weaponry. He let loose on Dragon's position with a barrage of projectiles – bullets, lasers, and rockets.

Dragon rushed forward in a burst of speed, weaving in and out of lasers, ducking under rockets and ignoring bullets as she closed in on the suit. Leaping into the air towards the suit, she cocked her arm back, before, just before she reached it, her fists became an untrackable barrage of blows, hammering into the battle-suit dozens of times in less than a second.

The powerful and sustained assault was too much for the suit, which fell to the ground, battered and broken.

Dragon landed on her feet, and looked around the room for any other opponents. She found one.

"You know," she commented idly, "I can't believe I didn't notice you before."

In response, Genesis, having taken the form of a rather large theropod dinosaur, roared out a challenge.

"This went badly for you last time," Dragon warned, "Please, think about this."

The ancient monster charged at her, jaws wide and ready to snap around her torso. Dragon side-stepped the lunge, but Genesis was quick to react, swinging her head toward the android, who raised her arms to block the impromptu attack and was sent flying several meters back. She landed on her feet, only to be forced to jump into the air to avoid the swinging tail of the huge predator.

Genesis, using the momentum of the spinning movement, lunged at the now-airborne Dragon again, jaws outstretched. Dragon narrowed her eyes, and, as the dinosaur's teeth were about to fall upon her, her left arm shot up to touch the roof of the creature's mouth, while her legs touched the base, forcibly stopping the jaws from snapping shut. Her right arm reared back, and, with a cry, she threw it forward, blasting a powerful burst of flame directly down the throat of the prehistoric predator.

The dinosaur managed a brief, weak roar of pain before the damage to it's internal organs became too much, and it collapsed to the ground with a loud crash. Dragon rolled to her feet, before wiping some saliva from her arm.

Her eyes lit up with information again, and she turned toward one of the doors leading out of the large room, before breaking out into a run again.

* * *

Lisa had a fair guess as to what was happening. First, Coil started interrogating her frantically about her two new 'friends'. Then, he took a phone call, before frantically making another one as he left the room.

After that, loud noises began sounding through the walls – gunfire, explosions, the general sound of combat.

And finally, to confirm her suspicions, the door burst inward, revealing one of her two would-be saviours.

"Lisa!" Dragon said in concern, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Lisa nodded in relief, "I'm fine. I'm surprised, to be honest, I expected him to torture me," she ignored the brief flash from her power telling her that he _did_.

"I'm glad," Dragon sighed, "Let me get you loose."

Her metallic rescuer ripped off the manacles holding Lisa down on the large interrogation seat. "Thanks," Lisa said, rubbing her wrists, "For getting me loose, and, well, in general," she said earnestly, "Where's Taylor?" She blinked, "Fighting the secret weapon? What secret weapon?"

"There was an unusually large life-sign present further within the complex," Dragon explained, "Teacher went to face it and entrusted your rescue to me."

"I've never heard of anything like that," Lisa frowned, "But I know who will. Coil."

"There are several life-signs on the move," Dragon's eyes flicked through more information, "It would be best to stop him now before he can cause us any more trouble."

"Amazingly, I agree," Lisa muttered grimly, "Let's go."

* * *

Taylor observed the monstrous creature with a straight face as it screamed loudly enough to shatter the glass. "But seriously, are you?" she tried to shout over the noise, "It's just, I really don't want to have burst into the wrong person's room."

In response, the creature charged forward, lashing out with the huge clawed arms that extended from her lower body. Taylor, stepping backward, ducked and weaved around the claws as they tried to slice her, going right back to the wall of the room. The creature charged forward, its entire body slamming the wall with significant force and causing the entire room to shake.

"You're slow," Taylor said with a frown from the other end of the room.

The monster whirled around. **"You… stay still and I'll kill you!"**

Several appendages emerged from its body – dozens of long, spiked tentacles, that lashed out toward Taylor at high speed.

Taylor's form almost seemed to be in a dozen different places at once as she avoided the appendages lashing, thrusting and slashing through the air around her. After a few seconds, the barrage of attacks stopped, leaving Taylor looking bored.

"I wish I hadn't gotten all worked up about this," she sighed, "You're not strong at all."

 **"Die! Die! DIE!"** The tentacles all fused together into one, huge, bludgeoning appendage. The monster swung it toward Taylor with as much might as it could muster.

Taylor didn't move.

The gigantic club smashed into the side of Taylor's head with enough force to knock down a building. It didn't even force her to tilt her head.

"I mean, you put everything you had into that," she said morosely, "Guess all that excitement was for nothing."

Her fist lashed out, obliterating the large tentacle-club entirely. The creature bent forward, the huge mouth coughing up something indeterminable.

"Well then," Taylor sighed, "I suppose I should –"

She was interrupted by a fist smashing into her chin with an earth-shattering boom, obliterating the room she had been in, and sending her rocketing out of the building with enough force to break the sound barrier in an instant.

"Wha?" Taylor blinked as she flew through the air at hypersonic speeds, landscapes, seas, islands and oceans drifting by quickly.

* * *

 _Dome Argus, East Antarctica  
_

There was no life around, but the snow was falling, as per usual. The Antarctic ice field looked expectedly serene.

This serenity was interrupted as a human-sized, hypersonic projectile smashed into the ice with the force of a small meteor. Ice and snow were kicked up by the ton as a huge wave of force echoed out from the impact site. huge quantities of ice cracked and shattered under the strain, and the ground seemed to shake for miles around.

At the epicentre of the impact, Taylor pulled herself to her feet, rubbing her chin. "What was that?"

Her eyes widened as she realised she was missing something rather important. "Gah! My wig!"

"I guess that's one of the areas where we differ."

Taylor turned around at the strangely familiar voice, before staring in shock.

Looking at her was what was almost an exact copy of her. Wearing the same costume, with the same eyes, nose, and mouth – there was only one, significant difference, though.

"After all..." her doppelganger smirked, as she shook her head, showing off the long, brown hair that fell behind and to each side of it, "Mine is _all natural."_


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: One Punch Man belongs to ONE. Worm belongs to Wildbow. The only thing that belongs to me is my muse.**

* * *

"What the fuck was that?" Lisa finally managed to whisper.

The pair had been making their way toward the retreating Coil. There was no resistance to speak of remaining in the building – all of the capes still in Coil's employ had been previously taken down by Dragon, and any human guards were either incapacitated, were guarding their employer as he fled, or simply had no wish to try their luck with the heroine who had handily disabled dozens of their number moments prior – so the journey had gone relatively without incident.

Until, of course, an enormous impact physically shook the entire facility. The entire world seemed to be falling apart, as rooms collapsed, walls caved in, and the ground crumbled. Fortunately, Dragon had managed to shield Lisa as the roof of the corridor they had been in caved in around them.

"I do not know," Dragon replied, brushing some dust from her top, "But I believe I could make an educated guess."

"Taylor," Lisa grimaced, "She must have turned it up a notch, if she hit something that hard. What the hell kind of monster was he hiding down here?"

Dragon paused for a moment, to gather information. "I can only sense the monstrous life-sign," she said after a moment, "Another life-sign appeared with the two fighters for a brief moment, before both the newcomer and my teacher left the area at abnormally high speed. I believe that someone or something intervened during her fight with the monster and they have left the area to continue their fight. However, that leaves us with a problem," her expression turned grim, "The monster is still here, and, given the damage to the facility, will no doubt break out to the surface and go on the rampage."

Lisa frowned. "The entire city should have felt that quake. The Protectorate should be swarming this place in no time. I'm sure they can contain it..." she trailed off at the look on Dragon's face, "Never mind, you're going, aren't you."

"I have to," Dragon agreed, looking determined, "I'm the only one on-site who can hope to contain it at the moment. There are three life-signs ahead, all are currently unconscious – I need you to go on ahead, find Coil, find out what he knows, then find a way to contact me."

The thinker cocked an eyebrow. "In other words, you want me to interrogate Coil."

Dragon nodded.

Her face twisted into a vicious smirk, "Yeah, you can leave that to me. I'll make that fucker sing like a bird."

Dragon looked slightly uneasy, but nodded again. "There isn't much time, I should go."

"Good luck with that," Lisa waved the android off as she leapt through the newly-formed hole in the roof, before palming the pistol she had lifted from an unconcsious guard, "Now then… time for some well-earned payback."

* * *

"THAT IS BULLSHIT!" Taylor roared in fury.

The clone cocked her head in confusion. "Come on, inferior original, I know you're quicker than this. Cloning can't be that hard of an idea to grasp."

"That's not what's bullshit!" Taylor snapped.

"Then what?" The clone looked nonplussed.

"HOW THE HELL DO YOU HAVE HAIR?"

Clone-Taylor blinked, then sighed. "You know, I really should have expected that. Fuck it."

In an instant, a huge boom rocked the landscape. The clone stood in Taylor's former position, arm outstretched, while Taylor skidded back nearly a hundred meters, arms crossed to block.

"Let's do this."

Clone-Taylor shot forward, leaving behind a sonic-boom as she charged to plant a vicious haymaker on Taylor's face. Taylor ducked under it, hands shooting forward to catch the knee that was instantly rising toward her chin. Clone-Taylor twisted around in mid-air, her free leg smashing into the side of Taylor's head, sending her flying.

Taylor's body flew up and across the landscape – before suddenly, Clone-Taylor was standing in her flight path, waiting for her with both arms up. She savagely smashed down with a two-armed hammer strike, sending Taylor hurtling toward the ground, where she connected with an enormous impact, leaving a crater a mile wide.

Clone-Taylor landed on her feet at the edge of the crater. "You see? You're apathetic. You're complacent. You haven't had to actually think about a fight. I, on the other hand, am fully invested in putting you down. You'd better get serious," she smirked, "Or you'll die even quicker."

The smirk left her face as a loud boom echoed from within the crater. A huge cloud of powder was kicked up, rushing toward the clone, obscuring her vision. With slight irritation, she brought her hands together in a strong clap, forming a shock-wave that blew away the irritant cloud.

And revealed Taylor's fist, closing quickly in on her face.

Clone-Taylor barely had time to widen her eyes before the fist smashed into her cheek, sending her hurtling across the ice-field. Managing to right herself, her eyes widened again as Taylor rushed her position. Reacting quickly, she leapt up into the air. Taylor shot to a stop, directly below her, then leapt up after the doppelgänger.

Taylor caught up to Clone-Taylor – and the pair burst into a flurry of motion as they began exchanging blows at rapid pace. Punching, kicking, blocking, dodging, any outside observer would have seen nothing but blurring and multiple, large shock-waves echoing through the air as the two near-identical super-powered teens traded hits.

Finally, both fighters managed to connect a solid punch with the cheek of the other – at the same time. Both were knocked flying away by the impact, crashing at separate ends of the ice field.

Clone-Taylor and Taylor both got to their feet, neither looking particularly worse for wear. "So you're taking me seriously, now," the clone chuckled, "Finally. And I was worried that killing you was going to be as boring as every other fight we've had."

Taylor merely stared, impassively. "You know, if you're supposed to be a clone of me, they did a shitty job. I don't remember ever talking this much during a fight."

"Shitty job?" Clone-Taylor laughed, "You're right! It was a shitty job. Clones are supposed to be identical – so if you make something that's superior to the original, you're doing it wrong, aren't you?"

She spread her arms out. "Take a look at me! Because I'm going to be what you could never be! The world's greatest Hero! I'll do what you should have done years ago - use our power to create a utopia! First the Endbringers, then the villains, then anyone else who dares disturb the peace… I'll wipe them all out! Nobody will dare violate the peace when I'm the one enforcing it! But first, of course," she quickly amended, "I'm going to kill you, and prove who is the superior by leaving your corpse at the feet of that stupid overgrown metal child who keeps following you around..." she suddenly paused. "Wait... wow, I just tripped so many loser flags there, didn't I? I really need to work on that."

"...Yeah, you do," Taylor said blandly after a moment, "Also, that's a really idiotic plan. The sort of plan that only a complete moron would think was a good idea. That thing must have made you with nothing but my stupid parts."

Clone-Taylor's brow twitched. "You won't be so fucking snarky after I break your stupid little face."

"You know you just called your own face stupid, right?" Taylor queried.

With an angry shout, Clone-Taylor launched herself at the original, and the fight resumed.

* * *

"I'm closing in on the epicentre!" Armsmaster barked loudly into his helmet, shouting over the wind as he flew through the streets on his bike, "How far away is backup?"

" _Velocity has been delayed, Assault and Battery are on their way, expect them there within 30 minutes_ _at the most_ _."_

He grimaced. "30 minutes? Is there any way to get them here any fast-"

He was cut off, swearing as he pulled his bike down and to the right as hard as he could to avoid the flying piece of debris that went on to fly over his head. Tumbling across the ground as his bike skidded across the ground, he rolled to his feet, halberd drawn and at the ready.

He paused as he observed the enormous creature that was clawing it's way out of the ruined ground, around a hundred meters away. He vaguely made out the form of what looked like a human sticking out from the top of the creature, while the bottom looked like something out of a nightmare – a multi-limbed, multi-headed monstrosity, almost like something he would have expected to read about in a Lovecraftian novel.

One of the heads was trained on him. The creature let loose an ear-splitting screech, before finally pulling itself free of the rubble.

" _Armsmaster! Armsmaster, report! What the hell was that?"_

He didn't take an eye from the creature as he responded. "The impact seems to have been caused by some kind of large, monstrous being. I hesitate to say the word, but…"

The silence from the other end of the line was as telling as any words could have been. _"Understood,"_ the operator responded with obviously forced calm.

"I will try to obtain more information about the creature before we make any hasty judgements," Armsmaster clarified, ready to move in an instant, "But please make the relevant parties aware."

" _Understood. Good luck."_

At that point, Armsmaster was forced to dive to the side as his systems registered an incoming attack – smoothly transitioning into a roll, he jumped to his feet and turned, swinging his halberd around in a wide arc.

The result was the blade of his weapon slicing clean through the large tentacle that the creature had at him from afar.

It roared in fury. **"Another one! Another one needs to die! I'll kill you! KILL! KILL YOU!"**

He was forced to back-pedal, halberd twirling as he slashed another tentacle, then another. The veteran hero did not waste a single movement as his blade flashed all around his body, intercepting the incoming appendages and slicing several more of them from the creature's main body.

Howling, it started to charge him in a straight line – at an extremely quick pace, quicker than most moving vehicles would normally travel. He launched himself to the side with as much power as he could manage, activating a set of boosters on his armour to provide extra distance – he barely avoided the oncoming monster, but just as he landed, only several meters away from the creature's main body, a clawed limb extended out, ready to crush him completely.

Something blurred past him from behind, before a powerful impact shook the ground around them, and the claw flew directly away from his position, along with the rest of the creature. A new combatant landed on her feet by its former position, in a ready stance.

He eyed the newcomer warily. _'_ _Female. At least partially of metallic composition. Apparently very physically powerful._ _Is this the new cape who fought Lung?'_

She turned to him. "You're… Armsmaster, leader of the Protectorate ENE. Are you all right?"

He nodded tensely. "Yes," he shifted his halberd, "My thanks. But who are you, and why are you here?"

"My name is Dragon, a hero," she explained, turning back to where the monster was climbing to it's feet again after her surprise attack, "My teacher and I were raiding the main facility of the super-villain Coil after he kidnapped one of our colleagues. We determined that he was hiding some kind of weapon in his base, and my teacher went to engage it," she frowned, "However, it seems a third party removed her from the fight. I believe it may be down to the two of us to contain this creature until assistance can arrive."

Armsmaster wanted to ask more questions, but the furious howl from the monster before them made him re-consider. He hefted his halberd, and both heroes turned back to face the threat. "Your help is appreciated."

* * *

Coil groaned as he tried to re-gain his bearings. Since the invasion of his facility had begun, he had lost count of how many time-lines he had burned through in his constant attempts to stay alive – his head was pounding, not just from the impact that shook his facility, but also from his near-constant use of his power.

He tried to remember what happened in the other time-line before this one – he vaguely remembered his small retinue stumbling across the raging Noelle, before his death. He looked around at his guards – both were unconscious.

He tried to struggle to his feet and keep moving. The pursuers would find him at any moment. He looked around for a gun.

He looked up - and found one.

Unfortunately, it was being pointed at his face.

His blood turned to ice as Tattletale broke out into a savage grin. "Tweet tweet, you bastard."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. It's an update! Believe it or not, I still have some neat ideas I'd like to try and put to paper for this story, so I'm going to dip into it every now and again when the creative juices (I hear lesser men call them 'beers') start flowing. I make all the apologies for quality.**

 **Disclaimer: One Punch Man belongs to ONE. Worm belongs to Wildbow.**

* * *

Amongst the ruins of what was once a city street, two heroes faced off against a monster from beyond the worst nightmares of many a child.

"So, I can't help but notice," Armsmaster began, watching the stirring form of the monster carefully, "That you seem to be very powerful. Why do you think you need my help for this?"

Dragon didn't take her eyes off their opponent. "I have power and speed in abundance, yes," she agreed simply, "But I am inexperienced, and have let my guard down before. I am also afraid that tactics are not quite my forté," she admitted modestly, "I fear that charging in, blasting it and hitting it until it stops moving may not quite work for this one."

Armsmaster snorted. "No," he agreed gruffly, "Somehow, I don't think so either."

"My understanding is that you are a veteran hero with significant experience and are well-known for a keen tactical mind," she continued, "I may have the power to fight this monster. You have the skill and experience to decide how to best utilise that power."

Armsmaster spared her a glance. "You're better at this than you think," he said approvingly, "If you know how to admit your weaknesses and when to ask for help."

"Thank you," she said with a nod, "But I think we are about to see more action."

Echidna roared, and long tentacles began to emerge from every side of it's body – each one tipped with a sharp, piercing implement, clearly designed to skewer human-sized targets.

"How are you with area-of-effect?" Armsmaster asked urgently.

"Now that _is_ my forté," Dragon smiled.

"Use it now!"

Responding instantly, Dragon's arms, palms blazing, crossed as Armsmaster leapt back. With a grunt, she opened both arms in a large arc as she fired, causing a powerful wave of flame to sweep over the landscape in front of her – and incinerate the mass of tentacles that had shot forward at that moment. The flames swept over Echidna, making the monster scream with irritation and pain.

In response, the monster began to charge again, cracking up the concrete of the road as it rushed toward the pair with the speed of a fast automobile. Armsmaster was ready, this time – firing off an armour-mounted grappling hook toward one of the nearby rooftops, he pulled up and away alongside the leaping Dragon whilst throwing down a series of small, spherical devices.

As Echidna galloped over their former position, the devices exploded – each in a hail of thin, metal spines, propelled at high velocity. The spines dug deep into the monster, but it was too large for them to be anything more than an irritation.

"Mines?" Dragon queried.

"Not just any mines," Armsmaster advised, "Hit it _hard_ in a few moments!"

The effect of the spines soon became apparent. The monster stumbled slightly... and then, just as it raised one of its multiple heads to face the pair, its movements began to slow noticeably.

"That compound was designed to put a ramped-up Lung to sleep," Armsmaster grunted with satisfaction, "I'm pleased there was still a use for it."

Dragon did not need to be told that this was the moment to strike. With a blast that blew a large hole in the roof she had been standing on, she rocketed toward Echidna at speed almost too fast for even the advanced visual assistance built into Armsmaster's helmet to follow.

With a mighty kick, she lifted the monster clear off its feet. Before the pain could break through the effect of Armsmaster's compound, Dragon's arms locked together, morphing and changing into a large cannon, with firing chambers seemingly present on every section of her arms.

"INCINERATE!" she roared, letting loose with an enormous, fiery blast that engulfed Echidna entirely.

The booming sound from her blast shattered windows for miles around. The pillar of flame rose up into the sky as though it were a column propping up heaven itself.

Surely, those present thought as they observed the dustcloud, there was no being on this world or any other that could survive such concentrated power and fury.

They were proven wrong.

Dragon blasted backward frantically to avoid a lashing tentacle, Armsmaster already moving back before she noticed the problem. As she skidded to a stop, she stared in disbelief.

Echidna was certainly not unscathed. A huge portion of her body had been blown clean away by the blast – but it was not enough. The biomass was already replacing itself rapidly, too rapidly.

"Damn," Armsmaster commented, "Do you have anything else you can hit her with?"

"...That was my best," Dragon admitted, "If that was not enough to put her down, I don't know what more I can do."

Whatever they did, they needed to do it fast. Echidna would soon be back up to full fighting power again.

 _BOOM._

At that moment, something impacted the ground in front of the monster with tremendous force.

* * *

Shockwaves blasted huge craters in the ice and snow as the two blurs smashed against each other several times in short succession.

"So, you remember the time we tried to fix the broken stair after getting our powers?" Taylor said conversationally.

"Meaningless prattle won't save you," her clone snarled as she let loose a powerful haymaker, hitting Taylor in the face and forming a gigantic trench in the snow from the girl's flying body.

Taylor exploded out of the crater at the end of the trench, looking at her clone with interest. "I mean, that hole went so deep I could see lava at the bottom. If we were smarter, we could have tapped geothermal and saved on our energy bills!"

She ducked to avoid the roundhouse kick that whistled over her head, before leaping back to avoid the two-handed hammer blow that rocked the ground for miles around. "What about the time we thought we'd missed the bus, overdid it when we sped up and ended up in Mexico? That was some nice chilli, but it was really hot."

"Do you think I'm here to talk? Or to _fight?!_ " the clone roared the last word, launching herself at the original in a flurry of punches and kicks far too fast for regular eyes, or even most parahuman ones, to follow. One particularly good elbow hit the original Taylor clean in the chest, forcing her back at least a hundred meters.

"What about the time we volunteered to chop the vegetables for dinner? I mean, damn. That was a good one."

"Yes, the counter got split in half, alongside the wall behind it, and we barely managed to pass it off as a very localised seismic event, I know, I was there!" the clone shook her head, "What's your point? Are you trying to tug at my _heartstrings_ to try and end this without a fight?"

"Nope, not at all," Taylor shook her head, "I just wanted to confirm that you've got all the same memories that I do, and now I know you do."

"And?" the clone stepped forward, arms raised.

"And, you can tell, can't you?"

Taylor's opponent paused. "Tell what?"

"That you're not as strong as you remember being before."

Everything went still.

Her clone's eyes widened in rage. "I don't know what you're talking about! I am just as strong as you and I'll show you!" She launched forward, intent on releasing a powerful haymaker to knock Taylor flying. A huge sonic boom blasted the surrounding area as her fist connected with Taylor's face, blowing away snow and ice in a huge cone behind her.

But Taylor didn't budge.

"W-what?" the clone whispered. "No!"

She swung again. Connected again. There was no effect.

"This is impossible. This can't be right!"

"That monster did a good job. It made you strong. _Really_ strong. You might even be the second-strongest thing on the planet," Taylor commented from behind her fist, "But whatever it did, it just wasn't able to make you as strong as I am. I don't think anything can. Unless you've got the time to do our workout again, at least."

"No, no, no! Fuck! Fuck!" The clone stumbled back, glaring at her own fist. "Why?"

"Hey, I don't know how cloning works," Taylor shrugged, "But you see this is pointless now, right? You'll never beat me."

"I will," her doppelganger whispered, "I have to! It's the only way to save the world! I have to be a hero! I HAVE TO BE A HERO!"

She pushed her cloned body harder than before to try and strike Taylor. Harder than should have been possible. Harder than what _was_ possible, without consequences. Before her fist struck home, a crippling pain shot through her entire body and made her stumble backward onto the ground with a choked gasp.

"Woah," Taylor stepped forward, concerned, "You okay, there? I didn't hit you too hard, did I?"

"Why?" The clone asked again. "Why like this?" she turned to Taylor, who was startled to see that the clone was crying. "Why did I get the passion back, only to lose the fucking power?"

"That must suck," Taylor commented awkwardly, the situation taking her well out of her comfort zone.

"All of the dreams we had, before we became strong," her clone muttered, "Even those early days of having power, when we killed Behemoth, and his replacement, and even the ones after that, before that overwhelming, disgusting _apathy_ set in... and the moment the dreams came back, the fucking power to carry them out disappeared," She laughed, bitterly. "Maybe it's impossible to have both. Maybe power and drive are mutually exclusive," she took off her glove and looked at her hand, which was beginning to turn an extremely unhealthy-looking grey colour, "You can't possibly understand how it feels to remember having the power of a god only to have it ripped away."

"That looks like the sort of thing you should go to a hospital for," Taylor did not like the way the hand was beginning to shrivel up, "Come on, I can get you to one."

"They couldn't help," the clone chuckled darkly, before suddenly coughing violently, spraying blood out across the snow, "I get it, now. This body, this cloning ability, it was never able to handle even this small fraction of our… no," she corrected herself weakly as the grey matter started spreading up her arm, " _Your_ power, was it? No parahuman power could. I never had a chance to be a hero, even if I did… beat you," she gasped, "I was doomed from the start. Poetic, isn't it? Unable to do anything… but fail. The life… and death... of Taylor Hebert… the useless loser..."

"Woah, let's not get defeatist," Taylor said in alarm as she picked up her copy in a bridal carry, "There's still plenty of time to get you some… help..." she trailed off, because the clone would not reply. She would never reply again.

Taylor stared at the body as it disintegrated in her hands.

She had just watched herself die.

No, not herself – a version of herself that she hadn't been in what felt like an extremely long time.

She supposed she should have been careful what she wished for. She always wanted to get into a fight that made her feel something, anything. Well, here she had it. She felt rather sad.

No, that wasn't right. She looked back in the direction of Brockton Bay.

Sad, yes. But that wasn't the _only_ thing. There was something else building. Something that she hadn't felt in a long, long time.

She leaped.

Ice gave way to water. Water gave way to land. Land became city. With an earth-shattering impact, she landed, and looked upon her enemy in all her fury.

* * *

When the dust cleared, Dragon was surprised.

She had never seen her impromptu teacher like this before. The teenage girl, now wig-less but not really looking any worse for wear, glared at the small mountain of flesh that was quickly knitting itself back together.

"I always said I wanted to find an enemy that could make me feel something in a fight again," Taylor said out loud, "Well, congrats. You're it. You did it."

Echidna made no response other than to scream again.

"Because for the first time, in a long time," Taylor continued, glare getting darker, "I. Am. _Pissed_."

It was over in one punch.

One moment, the strange little hero was facing down the monster. The next, the Monster was gone, in a shower of gore. There would be no regeneration for Echidna, not from the force that was imparted by what could conservatively have been described as the fist of an angry god.

Taylor merely stared at the remains, as Dragon observed her carefully and Armsmaster tried to work his jaw.

"Okay, Dragon," Taylor said after a moment, "I need to talk to you about this 'teaching' thing,"

She turned to face Dragon with one of the most serious looks the android had ever seen on her face, "Specifically, about why it's not going to work."


End file.
